


So Much Blood

by PrincessSelene04



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Anxiety, Blood, F/M, Kai centric, Mentions of Death, Worry, but graphic enough it should be mentioned, but no one actually dies except levana who's already dead, he's so stressed out he doesnt have time to be sassy, kai is panicking, not too graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21707470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessSelene04/pseuds/PrincessSelene04
Summary: Kai’s perspective when he found Cinder with the knife in her chest.
Relationships: Kai/Linh Cinder
Kudos: 79





	So Much Blood

Kai raced back through Artemisia Palace when he heard a gunshot echoing through the halls. He should have gone through the tunnels with Luna’s nobility, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave without Cinder. She’d probably get mad at him, say he would be more of a liability than a help, but he didn’t care.

The sash across his chest bounced into his face with every stride. Annoyed, Kai ripped it off and tossed it behind him. He only vaguely remembered where the throne room was, but he knew it was close. He could only hope he was heading in the right direction.

Kai rounded a corner and saw Wolf carrying Cress in his arms. Thorne and Scarlet followed right behind him. The closer Kai got, the more he afraid he became. Cress was drenched in blood, her skin already turning pale from the loss. Throne cradled his hand to his chest, he too was bleeding. Scarlet and Wolf both appeared unharmed for the most part.

Kai’s stomach sank. They were supposed to be with Cinder.

He stopped in front of them, heart pounding so fast he could hear the blood rushing in his ears. “Where’s Cinder?” he asked. He tried sounding nice about it, but it came out more like a demand than a question. He couldn’t help it. 

He was panicking.

There were very few times in his life that he felt true panic, true helplessness, and this was at the top of his list. He was on a different planet, in the middle of a revolution, and his wife was trying to kill his girlfriend.

“She’s in the throne room still. Wolf get Cress to a doctor,” Thorne said. He looked as scared as Kai felt, but there was determination there too. Thorne turned, starting back the same way they came. “I’m going back with Kai.”

Wolf nodded without hesitation then swiftly carried Cress through the hallways.

Scarlet grabbed Thorne’s wrist to stop him. “Don’t. You’ll distract her.” Her eyes shot to Kai. “Both of you. She needs to do this alone so Levana can’t use us against her. We don’t need what happened to Cress happening to either of you.”

He sensed an “especially Kai” in there because he was the emperor, but she didn’t voice it. He was grateful for that. Kai was tired of everyone acting like his life was more important than anyone else’s– _everyone else’s_. When it came down to it, he was just… human. He wasn’t special because he was royal.

Thorne tensed for a moment, looking guilty.

That look was all Kai needed to understand what happened to Cress. Throne shot her, but it wasn’t him. It was Levana. Throne couldn’t possibly feel responsible for that…

“Scarlet, I _have_ to,” Kai said. What if there was something he could do to sway the odds in Cinder’s favor? He couldn’t live with himself if she died and there was something he could’ve done to help.

“We won’t get in the way,” Throne said. Though he sounded confident, his expression and posture was uncertain.

It was promise.

Kai wasn’t so sure he could say the same.

Pursing her lips, Scarlet let go of Thorne’s wrist with a sigh. She looked back at Kai. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

“I don’t plan to.”

“As much as I want to, we don’t even have time for me to ask ‘what about me?’” Thorne looked at Kai. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“Never am, but I always have to be. Let’s go.”

Thorne nodded. “This way, Your Royal Majesticness.”

Kai didn’t bother correcting him about how wrong that title was. Scarlet went toward the medical wing while, they sprinted in the opposite direction. Turning right when they came to a split, the throne room finally came into view. One of the large double doors was wide open, but they couldn’t see anything inside.

Thorne stopped as they drew nearer, signalling for Kai to do exactly as he did. Together they leaned against the cool wall and snuck closer and closer to the doors. There wasn’t any sound coming from the room. 

Did they go somewhere else? 

Were Cinder and Levana both dead?

Kai shook that thought away. He had to believe that Cinder was alive, that she would make it out of this alive. She’d beat worse odds before. She escaped his entire army in the Farafrah, and from her prison cell in New Beijing, and… and she _had_ to escape this too.

Thorne moved to the closed door, keeping his back against it as he looked inside the room. “Shit,” he breathed. He rushed through the door, not giving Kai time to ask what happened.

Kai followed him, confused and frightened about why Throne was so eager to get inside the room. “Thorne, what are you–fuck.” He rushed ahead when he saw two people on the ground.

He barely even glanced at Levana as he went straight for Cinder. There was a dagger sticking out of her chest, right where her heart was. 

Kai knelt down where her blood was pooling, tears streaming down his face, and pulled Cinder into his arms. Her mousey brown hair had fallen out of her ponytail and over her eyes. He brushed it back so he could see her face better.

Her eyes were open for only a few seconds before they closed.

She was dying. She lived through a fire and a terrible stepmother and nearly drowning in the lake, but she couldn’t live through this. There was no way.

There was so much blood.

He looked over his shoulder at Thorne and yelled for him to get help.

“Don’t pull the knife out,” he said before dashing away.

Kai turned his attention back to Cinder. He sobbed, burying his face in her hair. “You’re going to be okay,” he said more to himself than to her. “Just _hang on_ , Cinder. Please don’t leave me now. N-not after all this. Not when we’re _so close_ to everything we’ve fought so hard for. _Please._ ”

He couldn’t remember the last time he cried like this. He was too young to understand what death meant when his mother passed. And he was too focused on keeping the peace with Luna and the rest of the world to grieve when his father passed. But now… Now Luna wasn’t a threat and he could breathe for the first time in months. 

Only Kai couldn’t.

Cinder was dying in his arms and all he could think about was how much he wanted to talk to her, celebrate that they’d _won_ with her.

Kai didn’t know how long he sat there with her in his arms, but it felt like ages. He talked to her the entire time, telling her it would be okay, that she was the strongest person he’d ever met and that she would make it out of this alive.

When the doctors showed up, he backed away and let them do what they needed to do. They rolled her to the medical wing on a gurney. Kai stayed with her as long as the doctors allowed him too. He didn’t want to leave her side, but knew he had to when she went in for surgery.

Though it was a drastic wound, the doctors were confident that Cinder would be fine. The knife penetrated one of the cybernetic heart chambers, not her heart itself.

Nevertheless Kai anxiously paced back and forth for the hours she was in surgery. Iko joined him not long after Cinder went in, carrying a tray of food for him to eat. She set it down on the little end table next to the couch. He politely declined it.

Iko didn’t have lungs, but she dramatically sighed as if she did. “She’d want you to eat, you know.”

Despite himself, Kai’s lips tugged up into a small smile. “I know, but I can’t right now. I will when she gets out of surgery.”

Iko raised an eyebrow at him.

“I promise. And if I don’t, then you can force feed me.”

“Alright.”

They waited and waited and waited together. Neither spoke until one of the doctors emerged, pulling her bloody gloves off as she walked toward him. “Your Imperial Majesty,” she greeted.

Kai eagerly walked over to her. “Is she okay? Is she awake?” 

“Her Majesty will be fine. We repaired the tear in the cybernetic chamber without any trouble. As you requested Doctor Nandez will be here in a few hours to work on the damage to Her Majesty’s limbs and any other damages there may be to her systems.”

“Thank the stars,” Kai breathed. “Can I see her?”

“We’re moving her to a recovery room now and you’re more than welcome to see her.”

“Show us the way, please.”

The doctor took Kai and Iko through a maze of hallways and finally opened a door for them. “She’s being monitored 24/7 so if there are any unexpected problems we’ll be in right away.”

Kai nodded. “Thank you.” He hesitated to enter the room, maybe he should let Iko go first. She was such a big part of Cinder’s life.

Sensing his reluctance, Iko squeezed Kai’s hand. “You go ahead, I’m going to check on Cress.”

“Okay.” That was all the push he needed to enter the room. Cinder was hooked up to a few IVs and he could see the heavy bandaging across her chest beneath the hospital gown she wore. Her skin looked slightly ashy, but better than when he found her in the throne room. 

It finally clicked in his mind that she was safe.

_She’s alive._

They were all alive.

Cress was in suspension, but her recovery looked hopeful. Thorne lost a couple fingers, but was otherwise fine. Scarlet got a minor concussion. Wolf… well they were trying to figure out if they could undo the changes they made to him, but that was unlikely. He seemed fine with it though. Jacin had some injuries, but seemed to be doing fine. Winter was the only person that they were still concerned about.

They didn’t know how to get her mind back in the right place.

Kai spent the entire night in Cinder’s room. Any political work that needed to get done was brought to him by Torin. Iko made sure he ate after she got back from checking on Cress. At one point he accidentally fell asleep, but was woken when a nurse came in to check Cinder’s vitals.

A few hours after that Dr. Nandez arrived and started working on Cinder’s cybernetics. Kai asked questions about what she was doing and how long she thought it would be until Cinder woke up.

Once she replaced something in Cinder’s head, Dr. Nandez started working on her hand.

Seconds later, Cinder’s eyes sprang open and her hand jerked away. The doctor fell to the ground, some metal tool in her hand clattering next to her.

Kai rushed to Cinder’s side, helping her to sit up so she didn’t accidentally pull her stitches. “It’s alright,” he assured her. Her hands immediately went to her chest as if feeling for the knife that was there last time she was awake. She looked panicked and flustered and ready to fight her way out of she had to.

Recognition slowly melted into her features and she relaxed against his arms.

Kai had never been so relieved in his entire life.


End file.
